The popularity of online payment methods experienced a rapid rise in the recent years, driven by increasing interest to online shopping, the growing number of online websites and digital buyers, and the expanding variety of payment options. Credit card is the leading payment method used by online shoppers worldwide. However, in the recent years, E-Wallets such as PayPal have shown a strong potential to overtake traditional credit cards.

Digital and mobile wallets were the leading online payment methods in Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific is the largest region in terms of E-Commerce, accounting for more than a half of global B2C E-Commerce sales. Digital and mobile wallets have already become the leading payment method used by online shoppers in this region. Thanks mostly to China, digital wallets hold a nearly 50% share among other digital payment methods such as bank cards or bank transfers. Moreover, Asia-Pacific ranked as the world’s leader in mobile payment adoption in 2017.

Europe shows interest in a variety of payment methods

Online shoppers in Europe demonstrate the variety in online payment preferences. Payment bank cards and PayPal remained the most popular method to pay a merchant in E-Commerce in 2017 on the regional average. However, consumers in Germany, Austria or Switzerland along with traditional online payment methods prefer paying with an invoice that they receive in a parcel with the delivered goods or by an email. There is also a wide variety of country-local payment methods, such as iDEAL in the Netherlands, Swish in Sweden or mobile payment app Vipps in Norway. As for emerging markets, overall they are ahead of the advanced economies in terms of the interest in FinTech technologies. For example in Russia, according to a survey, cryptocurrencies were known to more than a quarter of adult population.

North and Latin Americans’ online payment patterns are relatively similar

Credit card remains the leading payment choice of digital buyers in the USA, Canada and the countries of Latin America. Consumers from both regions appreciate the security of the traditional methods of payment. However, North American online shoppers are more familiar with using PayPal and mobile payment methods including Apple Pay, Android Pay, Google Pay. In Latin America only online shoppers in Mexico preferred to pay via PayPal more than with the traditional cards.

Cash on delivery is still one of the leading online payment methods in the Middle East and Africa

Following the global trend, online shoppers in the Middle East and Africa increasingly prefer to pay with credit cards and electronic wallets like PayPal and Alipay. However, these are among the last regions where cash on delivery remains a highly popular payment method used in E-Commerce in most of the countries. As on the global level, the main barrier to a new payment technologies adoption is the lack of trust in private payment information sharing with online websites.